Campbell joins Top 10 and hits road for playoffs

OIA's switch leaves top seeds wondering

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With just one week left until the boys basketball state championships begin, the 20-win club keeps growing.

Kalaheo, Punahou, Kamehameha-Hawaii and Konawaena are among the teams that have amassed at least 20 victories each. Kalaheo, which collected 17 of 26 first-place votes, remained at No. 1 for a third week in a row.

Other 20-win clubs include Moanalua and Campbell, which entered the Top 10 at the 10 spot.

The one team that is a long way from 20 wins could well be the one that takes the state crown. Iolani (16-8) nabbed eight first-place votes after edging Punahou for the Interscholastic League of Honolulu title in a neutral-court battle at Blaisdell Arena.

Speaking of courts, fans of the Campbell Sabers are less than pleased since learning that their top-seeded team will play away on the home floor of lower-seeded Mililani in the semifinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red playoffs.

Magic number

Six schools have reached the 20-win plateau with the regular season over:

He knows that his Campbell Sabers worked hard to earn the No. 1 seed in the Red West of the OIA. In fact, his team swept preseason favorite Mililani, and that factor weighed into the league's tiebreaker formula -- the very one that hoisted Campbell up as the Red West's best.

However, all the regular-season battles amount to little.

Campbell's homecourt advantage as the top seed has been taken away in the name of TV. The Red West's third seed, Mililani, will host West No. 1 seed Campbell in the OIA semifinals.

Figure that: A No. 3 seed hosts a No. 1 seed.

How does that happen? It's because Mililani's gym is "wired" for broadcast on OC 16. The same goes for Mililani's football facility.

"They have the fiber optics there," OIA boys basketball coordinator Hugh Taufaasau said. "It was already pre-selected. Everybody knew that the sites were TBA (to be announced). It's no guarantee you'll be the home team."

From OC-16's perspective, there's no harm meant, not after 18 years of promoting OIA athletics. The league, through executive director Dwight Toyama and its sport coordinators, has a "working relationship" with the cable station.

Kahuku lost its regular-season homecourt edge against Kalaheo when the OIA and OC 16 moved the game to Mililani. Then the Red Raiders, the Red East No. 3 seed, were forced to play against lower-seeded Mililani in the Trojans' gym last week.

Mililani rallied late against a fatigued Red Raiders squad for a narrow win.

"It's never a case of, 'We have to have Kahuku and we have to move them.' My interaction with the league is they want a game that's competitive. It's never a case that we have to have this team or that team," Vinton said. "As far as Kahuku and Mililani, we empathize with Kahuku losing their senior night. I know Dwight talks to all his ADs and they sit as a council and vote. They get their input."

The games, particularly in the playoffs, are viewed with a "regional" concept in mind.

"It's like the NCAA's March Madness, it's about regional sites," Vinton said. "They could ask for a different site, but that's a lot of 'what ifs?' We go for the most competitive game. The OIA selects the game and that's what we're going with. I don't know if there's any perfect solution, but we never pressure them for any game."

"I am unhappy with the No. 1 seed having to play at the No. 3 seed's home court," he said, noting that his role as an assistant athletic director limits the extent of his public comment.

Taufaasau, who is also Nanakuli's athletic director and a former longtime coach, empathizes with the teams and fans.

"I got all kinds of calls myself. It's just one of those things. It hurts some people and it helps some people. You can't make everybody happy," he said.

At an athletic directors' meeting yesterday, the possibility of moving host teams like Mililani and McKinley (which also has fiber optics) out of their own gyms -- switching the Campbell-Mililani game to McKinley, for example -- wasn't discussed.

"If we can do anything better (next time), we'll try and do it. We'll talk it over at the end of the year," Taufaasau said.

The Top 10 high school boys basketball teams as voted on by coaches and media from around the state. First-place votes in parentheses. Ten points for first-place votes, nine for second, eight for third, etc.